Ron Carter's Great Big Band/April Mae Webb (Charlie Parker Jazz Festival) @ Marcus Garvey Park, New York, NY 8/22/25

 


Bill: Ron Carter's Great Big Band/April Mae Webb (Charlie Parker Jazz Festival)

Venue: Marcus Garvey Park at West 122 St, New York, NY

Date: 8/23/25

Door: Free

8pm Ron Carter's Great Big Band



Active: Ron Carter: 1959 (Ferndale, MI) Ron Carter's Great Big Band: 2011 (New York, NY)

Latest Release: Ron Carter's Great Big Band (Sunnyside, 2011)

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7pm: April Mae Webb



Active: 2017 (New Jersey via Kansas City)

Affiliated: Sounds of A&R  (Sounds of April & Randall)

Latest Release: "Everybody Ain't Gonna Like You" (Sounds of April & Randall), Questions Left Unanswered (Soaring, 2021)

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Somehow in 30-some-odd years in NYC I've never been to a Charlie Parker Jazz Festival show at Tompkins Square Park or have set foot in Marcus Garvey Park at all.  No time like the present since I hadn't seen Ron Carter either.  It was a sign to pull this trifecta since I listened to his early 60's sessions with Eric Dolphy recently and decided on the fly to go up to Harlem and check out his 88th birthday big band show.  Normally I'd want to check him out in a smaller ensemble which he is still actively doing at 88, but free and now and a hard urge to step out which overrode everything.

When I got there walked down Madison down 122nd St to the park and had to walk around a bit to figure out where the soundstage was.  That place is a thing of beauty. A true oasis.  It was pretty packed out and April Mae Webb was on, so I walked around the back and up the side to try to find a sightline.  I found a great leaning tree with a perfect view of April Mae Webb, so I stuck there.  She let us know she was coming from NJ from Kansas City and won the Sarah Vaughan competition last year.  I guess this is why she is emphasizing her own name on the bill vs the Songs of A&R moniker she has been playing with trumpeter Randall Hayward.  When I saw their show, I came in a little blind.  I thought what they were doing was a little more ensemble oriented than I was expecting from a set from a featured vocalist.  I have a feeling both will be moving more in the direction of establishing their own names as performance entities since that has already started to happen.  

So, I had my leaning tree and April Mae closed with a song about hanging out under a tree in Kansas City and all was fine but when Ron Carter went on, he was obliterated by the pianist, so I started to move around.  The next spot I still couldn't get a bass view and then someone had a conversation so I moved on not really wanting to bother the dancers to try to walk through a solid block of people behind them so I went back to the path where I came where people were lined up against a front wall but the back wall was open and lo and behold a beautiful view of full band Ron Carter and 16 other instrumentalists in full view, since there was a couple nobody wanted to stand next to for the last spot on the front wall.

Ron Carter is clearly still playing well and if anyone thought he might be using a big band to mask advanced years I think would be mistaken.   This was clearly conceptual and if you look into it, he put his big band release out in 2011.  This format does work great for a free show in the park as opposed to cramming it into Blue Note.  The only problem is Ron has quite a bit to say, and it wasn't easy to hear him initially, causing someone to yell and complain about it while he was talking, to truly make it impossible to hear what he had to say.  The one problem with the spot in the back was the police had their walkie talkies blaring nonstop, so I also had to move away from them right before I found my spot for the rest of the show.  I was rewarded for my effort. There at last, I could hear Ron tell us that "Short Change" is about April 16th the day AFTER Tax Day and remembering a very tall Art Blakey so in tribute he was going to do a very short cover.  

The show ended fast at 9:30 and we were told to get home safe and come back tomorrow for Branford Marsalis with Tompkins on Sunday and an Afro-Cuban Jazz show later in the week. So I went out of the oasis, took a stroll down 1-2-5 to the 4/5/6, took a slow train down to 14th and got home safe.  I used to commute from the Bronx on that line and used to always wait for the express at 125 but for a nice empty train with plenty of open seats is just too tempting for me.  I even managed to get a seat on the L on a Friday night coming home beyond 8th Ave!  Will wonders ever cease?

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Eric Dolphy/Ron Carter-Magic (1975)









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